How Attitudes Toward Knowledge Sharing and Learning Increases Individual Innovative Behaviour

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How Attitudes Toward Knowledge Sharing and

Learning Increases Individual Innovative

Behaviour

Empirical results from the Indonesian hospitality industry

Master Thesis

Strategic Innovation Management Alex Crick - S1683284 alexcrick19@gmail.com

Supervisors Dr. B.J.W. Pennink Dr. T. Broekhuizen

Faculty of Economics and Business Rijksuniversiteit Groningen

August 12, 2014

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Abstract

The aim of this study is to investigate whether attitudes toward knowledge sharing and learning influence individual innovative behaviour. It tries to measure if an increase in the willingness to share knowledge and learn from one another enhances the willingness to innovate. individual innovative behaviour is defined as complex behaviour consisting of a set of three divergent behavioural tasks namely idea generation, idea promotion, and idea realization (Scott and Bruce, 1994). Furthermore, this study aims to shed light on how Humanness and individual capital relate to attitudes toward knowledge sharing and learning. Humanness is a South African management concept based on five dimensions: survival, solidarity, compassion, respect and dignity (Sigger et al., 2010). Individual capital stems from Bourdieu's theory of practice and is based on four forms of capital: economic, social, cultural and symbolic capital (Bourdieu, 1986). To test these relationships a case study was conducted in the hospitality industry of Bali, Indonesia. The findings of this research suggest that attitudes toward learning and knowledge sharing significantly influence individual innovative behaviour. Furthermore, the results reveal that individual capital positively relates to attitudes toward knowledge sharing and learning. Moreover, the results of the study also indicate that Humanness positively influences attitudes toward learning.

Keywords: Individual innovative behaviour, Knowledge sharing, Learning, Humanness, Individual

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Acknowledgements

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List of tables and figures

Figure 1: Conceptual model ... 9

Figure 2: Conceptual model adjusted with Betas ... 33

Figure 3: Decomposed effects ... 33

Figure 4: Concluding model ... 38

Table 1: Profile of hotels ... 23

Table 2: Concepts and variables ... 24

Table 3: Overview of Cronbach's Alpha's ... 27

Table 4: Pearson correlation matrix ... 30

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1. Introduction

Innovation plays a critical part in the long term success of an organization. According to Drucker (1995) organizations are in a constant state of creation, growth, stagnation and decline. It is the organization's ability to constantly innovate which allows a firm to outperform its competitors and create a sustainable advantage. Van de Ven (1986) states that the ideas are the bases of an innovation and the people are who develop, carry, react to and, modify these ideas. It is therefore interesting to investigate what motivates and enables people to actually develop and act on these ideas.

Scott and Bruce (1994) were one of the first authors to look at innovation from an individual perspective and made a contribution to the field of innovation literature by investigating what influences individuals to behave more innovative. They define individual innovative behaviour as complex behaviour consisting of a set of three divergent behavioural tasks namely idea generation, idea promotion, and idea realization. In other words, it determines to what extent an individual has the intention to be creative and come up with their own ideas or solutions to problems and look for support to be able to realize the idea which can be experienced, diffused, applied, mass-produced or institutionalized. Janssen (2000) further builds on their research and implies that individual innovative behaviour is essential for an organization to function effectively and stay competitive in the future. However, literature up until now has neglected to study individual innovative behaviour from a knowledge management perspective.

According to Bolisani and Scarso (1999) knowledge is seen as the foundation of the innovation process. The ability of employees to transfer knowledge throughout the organization and also learn from the information provided to them, is critical to an organization to create and enhance its capabilities which in turn leads to generating a sustainable competitive advantage (Slater and Naver, 1995; Dyer and Singh, 1998; Law and Ngai, 2008). Moreover, sharing knowledge and learning among the employees stimulates the combination of existing and newly acquired knowledge and enhances an organization’s capacity to generate new ideas for product development (Jansen, Van den Bosch and Volberda, 2005). The creation of new ideas is determined by Scott and Bruce (1994) as one of the elements of individual innovative behaviour. According to Monica Hu et al. (2009) employees with positive attitudes toward knowledge sharing and learning tend to be more innovative.

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7 customers perception of the service to be able to outperform competitors. The employees who deliver the service are the ones that are in direct contact with the customers and are therefore essential as they directly affect the customer's satisfaction (Zeithaml and Bitner, 2000). Due to their knowledge about the needs of the customer, innovation is often initiated by the company's customer-contact personnel (Jones, 1996). Thus, the willingness of the employees to innovate is critical to the performance of the organization. Furthermore, the hospitality industry is a highly competitive market in which innovation plays an important role in outperforming the competition (Monica Hu et al. 2009). The hospitality industry will thus provide a good basis for this investigation.

The main purpose of this study is therefore to extend the research that has been conducted on the concept individual innovative behaviour by investigating whether the attitudes toward knowledge sharing and learning influences individual innovative behaviour. This thus leads to the following research question:

To what extent can individual innovative behaviour be explained by the attitudes toward knowledge sharing and learning?

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8 sharing as it highlights the resources employees use which may increase these attitudes. Hence, the second research question reads as follows:

How do Humanness and individual capital influence the attitudes toward knowledge sharing and learning?

This study has several theoretical contributions to existing research. First of all, it will contribute by expanding the literature on individual innovative behaviour by examining the influence of attitudes toward knowledge sharing and learning. Second, it contributes by combining the research conducted by Borkent (2013) and Van Bree (2014) through studying how Humanness and individual capital refer to the attitudes toward knowledge sharing and learning. To be able to investigate these relationships, the research will be performed in the Indonesian hospitality industry and specifically in the hotel industry. Furthermore, the results of the study will be used to provide managerial implications for organizations in the hospitality industry. It tries to create awareness for organizations in the hospitality industry of the importance of individual innovative behaviour and whether the attitudes of the employees toward knowledge sharing and learning enhance this behaviour. Moreover, this study intends to indicate how Humanness and individual capital are of importance in enhancing the attitudes toward knowledge sharing and learning of the employees within the hospitality industry.

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2. Innovative attitudes in the hospitality

industry

To get a better understanding of the elements that are of importance in this research, figure 1 presents the conceptual model central in this study. The variables will be touched upon in order to define the hypotheses. As a direct connection is not expected between individual capital and Humanness with individual innovative behaviour, the concepts attitudes toward knowledge sharing and learning can be seen as intervening variables.

Figure 1: Conceptual model

2.1 Humanness

2.1.1 Ubuntu

The African management philosophy, also known as Ubuntu, views an organization as a community and is believed to be integrated in the values and norms of the African people. It is an outcome of a combination of developments related to historical, political, and economic contexts (McFarlin et al., 1999). According to Karsten and Illa (2005: 612) Ubuntu can be translated as: “the person is a person through other persons”. In English, Ubuntu can best be translated as Humanness which shall further be used throughout this study.

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10 social achievements above personal achievements and therefore emphasizes the importance of collectivism and trust between individuals within the group. Ali et al. (2001) refer to this as 'motivational gravity' which can be defined as the social disapproval of the individual who places himself/herself above others. Hence, employee performance in African firms is often based on the performance of the entire team by means to increase collectivism within the organization (Mariappanadar, 2005). In order to incorporate Humanness into management practices it is essential that Humanness is part of the organizational culture. An organizational culture in which Humanness is integrated is characterized by high respect of authority and a people oriented management style (Blunt and Jones, 1997). Humanness determined from a managers perspective is about how employees feel about themselves and others, and is the essence of their being (Mbigi & Westbrook, 1998). Karsten and Illa (2005: 614) argue that “Humanness embraces a set of social behaviours like sharing, seeking consensus and interdependent helpfulness which, if recognised, valued and willingly incorporated in the culture of organizations, could exert considerable positive outcomes on business results”. Thus, Humanness is present in the way employees perceive the interaction with each other and share experience and knowledge. The focus of this study on the concept Humanness is taken from the perspective of Sigger et al. (2010) in that it investigates Humanness as a value which is present amongst all the employees of the hospitality industry. By investigating the presence of Humanness at all levels of an organization it can be determined whether Humanness is incorporated into the organizational culture. The level of Humanness within an organizational culture thus indicates the perceptions that individuals have of their working relationships with others in the organizations. In order to incorporate Humanness into management practices, it is essential that Humanness is part of the organizational culture. In other words, by indentifying Humanness throughout an organization, indicates that Humanness is part of the management practices of the firm.

2.1.2 Dimensions of Humanness

In 2010, Sigger et al. created a measurement tool in order to measure the level of Humanness in organizations in Tanzania by using the four dimensions of Humanness developed by professor Mbigi: survival, solidarity, compassion, and respect & dignity. To be able to identify the relation between Humanness and the attitude toward knowledge sharing and learning, the dimensions of the measurement tool shall shortly be described.

Survival

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11 core value. Brotherhood is evident in that team members are dependent from each other in order to increase effectiveness. As mentioned earlier, Humanness is about collectivism in which the common good is more important than the individual preferences.

Solidarity

The dimensions solidarity and survival are closely related to one other. Similar to survival, solidarity emphasizes the community needs which are more valued than the personal interests (Sigger et al., 2010). Solidarity has to do with working together to be able to accomplish more and perform difficult tasks. Hence, solidarity is the essence of an organizational culture which is distinguished by empowerment and team work. Moreover, it is an important aspect in creating team cohesion and commitment (Broodryk, 2006).

Compassion

Sigger et al. define compassion as "the value that illustrates the quality of understanding of the other one’s problems and the urge to helping him" (2010: 13). People who possess this value are characterized by the willingness to help members within and outside of their community (Poovan et al., 2006). Furthermore, compassion leads to the development of a shared vision among the members of a group through personal understanding and caring of each other that it will eventually evolve into a feeling of belonging to the whole. (Mangaliso, 2001; Poovan et al., 2006). Moreover, compassion not only strengthens the ties between team members but also creates new relationships (Broodryk, 2006).

Respect & Dignity

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2.2 Individual capital

2.2.1 Bourdieu's theory of practice

Individual capital is derived from Bourdieu's theory of practice which can be determined as "a multi layered framework that conceptualizes individuals as producers of social practices within a social space while following specific logics of practices" (Chudzikowski and Mayrhofer, 2011: 22). In this theory there are three main pillars that are of importance, that is the field, habitus and capital. Bourdieu (1977) states that different forms of capital, habitus and the field all work together to generate practice. The field can be defined as a dynamic playground which is shaped by the social practice of their actors within a broader social space. It is dynamic in that it grows, changes and perishes over time (Wacquant, 2006). Moreover, it can be seen as a playground in which each individual actor tries to enhance its own position by following an individual strategy (Chudzikowski and Mayrhofer, 2011). The field structures the habitus, while the habitus structures the perceptions of the field (Bourdieu, 1988). The habitus is determined as a set of permanent dispositions through which a connection is made between social structures and social practices which are produced by habitus (Cvetičanin, 2012). The habitus is where the individual and field conditions exist in a state of interplay. The habitus is dynamic since it is constantly subjected to the changing and varied experiences of an individual. An example of habitus is the culture that exists within an organization. Bourdieu conceptualizes capital as ‘’accumulated labour in its materialized form or its ‘’incorporated’’, embodied form that individuals draw on and deploy in order to pursue their life choices’’(1986: 241). Bourdieu further determines capital as resources which individuals use to maintain or enhance their position in the social hierarchy (Cvetičanin, 2012). Employees are seen as the ones who hold capital in which they transform and reproduce the organizational context by their actions. The field and habitus are therefore both created by the actions of individuals since they are reproduced through those actions realized within the matrix of different forms of capital and dispositions. On the contrary, individual capital is also formed by the field and habitus and therefore does not exist in independence (Ozbilgin and Tatli, 2005).

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13 2.2.2 Individual capital

According to Wacquant (2006) previous research has found that individual capital is closely linked to attitudes and behaviours of individuals within the field. Capital appears in four main guises, depending on the field in which it functions, as economic capital, as social capital, as cultural capital and as symbolic capital (Bourdieu, 1986). To get a better understanding to what manner individual capital will have an influence on the attitude toward knowledge sharing and learning, each of the forms of capital shall be shortly discussed.

Economic capital can be directly converted into money and may be institutionalized in the

form of rights of ownership (Bourdieu, 1986). It is the only form of capital that has a material nature and consists of material and monetary wealth, physical resources and commodities. Social capital is made up of the system of social ties and consists of the resources and powers derived from networks of relationships. It can be seen as the enhanced value of being a member of a group and can be institutionalized in the form of status titles (Cvetičanin, 2012). Cultural capital presents itself in three forms. First of all, it can appear in a incorporated form through competence and skills. Secondly, presented as an institutionalized form through academic titles and degrees. Finally, it can be presented as an objectivised form through cultural products like books, articles, drawings, etc. (Chudzikowski and Mayrhofer, 2011). In this study cultural capital will be determined in the institutionalized form, which is the form of educational qualifications, and determined in the incorporated form through competence and skills. The final type of individual capital, symbolic

capital is the closest to the concept of prestige and legitimizes the other forms of capital. Symbolic

capital is formed through the shared meanings of value as it can be seen as any of the above mentioned forms of capital that is recognized by social agents, which cause it to have value (Bourdieu, 1998). The rules of a particular social field specify which combination of the basic forms of capital will be authorized as symbolic capital, thus becoming socially recognized as legitimate (Chudzikowski and Mayrhofer, 2011). In contradictory to economic capital the social, cultural and symbolic forms of capital are immaterial. Unlike money and rights of ownership, the immaterial forms cannot be transmitted instantaneously by gift, purchase or exchange (Bourdieu, 1986).

2.3 Attitudes toward knowledge sharing and learning

2.3.1 Knowledge

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14 organizational knowledge which views knowledge at different levels of analysis. Individual knowledge is created by and exists in the individual. According to Yang and Wan (2004) individual knowledge can be seen as the comprehensive interpretations and syntheses of information being gathered by applying individual talent, past experiences and competences. Furthermore, it is related to the values, beliefs and actions of individuals (Nonaka and Takeuchi, 1995). Organizational knowledge on the other hand is defined as "the capability members of an organization have developed to draw distinctions in the process of carrying out their work, in particular concrete contexts, by enacting sets of generalizations whose application depends on historically evolved collective understandings" (Tsoukas and Vladimirou, 2001: 973). It is thus the collective knowledge that enables organizational members to perform their tasks successfully. Moreover, organizational knowledge is embedded in the organization's systems, processes, products, rules and culture (Beckman, 1999). Knowledge is internalized within the organization through its employees who interact with one another and share their expertise. In this interactive process, not only do individuals enrich their own knowledge, the organizational value of an individual's knowledge is also increased when it is shared and therefore made available to the organization (Bhatt, 1998; Ipe, 2003). Furthermore, organizational knowledge is more than the sum of its individual knowledge bases, since it resides in the relationship between individuals (Kriwet, 1997). As this study analyses the perspectives at an individual level, knowledge will refer to as information that is processed by individuals including all expertise, experience, ideas, data and individual assumptions, which have relevance for the organization (Bartol and Srivastava, 2002).

2.3.2 Attitudes toward knowledge sharing and learning

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15 that individuals possess the capabilities to acquire knowledge. The ability of an individual to acquire knowledge can also be described as individual learning (Cohen and Levinthal, 1990).

The behaviours of learning and sharing knowledge among individuals within the organization are of importance to the generation of an organization's capabilities and vital to the firm's business performance (Law and Ngai, 2008). Sher and Lee (2004) state that knowledge sharing behaviours facilitate learning among employees and enable them to resolve problems similar to situations encountered by others in the past, thus enabling quicker responses to the customers. Hence, during the interaction in which employees diffuse relevant information to others, learning opportunities are created and stimulate others to acquire new knowledge (Ipe, 2003). Furthermore, for individual knowledge to create value for an organization it is important that an individual is willing to share knowledge and thus make it available to others in the organization (Nonaka and Takeuchi, 1995). However, Robertson and Hammersley (2000) state that it is as important that employees who interact with their colleagues are willing to absorb knowledge as well. Without the attitude to learn, knowledge cannot be shared across the organization and will not lead to an increase of organizational knowledge. Furthermore, according to Robertson and Hammersley (2000) the attitudes of individuals within a firm to share knowledge and to learn from it differs. For instance, employees differ in their intentions to share knowledge and learn which is partially caused by the amount of knowledge that they possess. The extensiveness of knowledge positively influences the attitudes toward learning and knowledge sharing (Martin and Salomon, 2003). Hence, it is interesting to investigate what further influences the differences in these behaviours. This study will therefore try to identify to what extent these attitudes are influenced by Humanness and individual capital. 2.3.3 Humanness and attitudes toward knowledge sharing and learning.

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16 Therefore, it is as much of importance that individuals possess the capabilities to acquire knowledge. The ability of an individual to acquire knowledge can also be described as individual learning (Cohen and Levinthal, 1990). As individuals differ in the way they act and behave, as do they differ in the degree concerning their attitudes toward learning and knowledge sharing (Käser and Miles, 2001). It is therefore interesting to investigate the role of Humanness in identifying how it influences the attitudes of the employees. The focus of this study on the concept Humanness is taken from the perspective of Sigger et al. (2010) in that it investigates Humanness as a value which is present amongst all the employees within an organization. Moreover, the level of Humanness indicates the perceptions that individuals have of their working relationships with others in the organizations. Thus, Humanness is of importance to understand the attitudes toward knowledge sharing and learning of employees as it highlights the perceptions of employees concerning these attitudes. Taking the theoretical analysis and the results of Scholtens (2011) and Scholte (2012) into account, the following hypotheses are formed:

H1: Humanness has a positive effect on attitudes toward knowledge sharing H2: Humanness has a positive effect on attitudes toward learning

2.3.4 Individual capital and attitudes toward knowledge sharing and learning.

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17 this study and the findings of Borkent (2013) and Van Bree (2014) it is assumed that similar results will appear in this investigation. This leads to the next hypotheses:

H3: Individual capital has a positive effect on attitudes toward knowledge sharing H4: Individual capital has a positive effect on attitudes toward learning

2.4 Individual innovative behaviour

2.4.1 Typologies of innovation

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18 2.4.2 Behavioural innovation

Behavioural innovativeness within an organization can be identified at the individual, team and organizational level. At an individual level behavioural innovativeness is interpreted as the individuals willingness to change (Hurt et al., 1977). Furthermore, team innovativeness demonstrates a team's ability to change and is a synergy based on the dynamics of the group and not just on the sum of innovative individuals (Lovelace et al., 2001). Finally, behavioural innovativeness at the organizational level determines a firms willingness to change, and commitment to encourage new ways of doing things, as well as the willingness to foster new ideas (Rainey, 1999). As organizational innovativeness is seen as an aspect of a firm's culture, behavioural innovativeness is of importance in that it enables the formation of an innovative culture, through an overall internal receptivity to new ideas and innovation (Wang & Ahmed, 2004). To determine whether individuals within the organization are willing to innovate, behavioural innovativeness is touched upon from an individual level perspective. 2.4.3 Individual innovative behaviour

Van de Ven (1986) implies that ideas are the foundation of the innovation process and it are the individual employees that develop, act on, and modify ideas. According to Scott & Bruce (1994) individual innovative behaviour is defined as complex behaviour consisting of a set of three divergent behavioural tasks namely idea generation, idea promotion, and idea realization. The first task in which individual innovation begins is the generation of an idea and implies the production of novel and useful ideas or solutions in any domain (Janssen, 2000). New ideas are often created through perceived work-related problems, emerging trends, discontinuities, and incongruities (Drucker, 1985). During the second task of the process, an individual seeks sponsorship for supporting and promoting the idea. When an individual has generated a new idea, he or she must take part in social activities to find the needed supporters of the idea, or build a coalition who will provide the necessary power to back up the idea towards moving it into reality (Kanter, 1988). The last task of the innovation process is the realization of the idea. That is, the individual completes the idea by building a prototype or model of the innovation that can be experienced, diffused, applied, mass-produced or institutionalized (Kanter, 1988). According to Scott & Bruce (1994) individual innovative behaviour thus views innovation as a multistage process, in which at each stage different activities take place and different individual behaviours are necessary. Individuals can be involved in various combinations of the innovation stages at the same time, since innovation is characterized by discontinuous activities rather than discrete, sequential stages (Schroeder et al., 1989).

2.4.4 Individual innovative behaviour and attitudes toward knowledge sharing and learning.

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19 within the organization leads to an increase of the quality of the service which could lead to a competitive advantage (Liao, 2006). In the hospitality industry it is especially important to share knowledge and learn about the customer's preferences. As the customer is involved in the simultaneous production and consumption of the service, it is critical to enhance the customers perception of the service to be able to outperform competitors. The employees who deliver the service are the ones that are in direct contact with the customers and are therefore essential as they directly affect the customer's satisfaction (Zeithaml and Bitner, 2000). Due to their knowledge about the needs of the customer, innovation is often initiated by the company's customer-contact personnel (Jones, 1996).

Innovative behaviour can be referred to as a process that should improve the efficiency and effectiveness of problem-solving in the workplace (Xerri and Brunetto, 2011). Knowledge sharing and learning have been found to have a positive effect on innovative performance (Liao, 2006; Monica Hu et al., 2009; Fredriks, 2012). Van Offenbeek and Koopman (1996) imply that exchanging information and learning can be seen as interaction processes between employees which promote innovation. The exchange of information increases knowledge and experience resources available to other employees, improves the analysis of the problem and allows better assessment of the usefulness of potential solutions (Jackson, 1996; Nemeth and Owens, 1996). These factors can all be seen as critical to the innovation process and enhance the employee's intentions to innovate. Organizations within the hospitality industry therefore need to develop and ensure knowledge sharing behaviour to be able to increase the innovativeness of the firm. An organizational culture characterized by cooperation, organizational support and cohesiveness will encourage employees to share knowledge and also motivate and empower individuals in organizations to innovate. Furthermore, learning is associated with the development of new knowledge and is also an important aspect of the innovation process which leads to an improvement of company performance (Liao, 2006). As previously mentioned, individual innovative behaviour entails creating new ideas, seeking support for ideas and finally realizing ideas. Being eager to learn indicates an appreciation for and desire to develop, assimilate and apply new ideas (Huber, 1991). Based on these findings and conclusions the following is hypothesized:

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3. Methodology

3.1 Research design

To test the defined hypotheses a case study has been performed. The decision to use a case study was based on the findings of Thomas (2004), who states that a case study provides the opportunity to gain a rich and complex understanding of the phenomenon in question. According to Yin (1993) a case study research can either be explanatory, descriptive or exploratory. The aim of this research is to provide a better understanding of the relationships between the concepts of importance by studying them in a different setting. Thus, an explanatory case study is applicable as its purpose is to perform an intensive examination of a single or a small number of units of interest (Thomas, 2004). Industries, organizations, departments or organizational teams can be seen as the units of interest in a case study. Explanatory case studies are useful for the knowledge generating process theory testing, since in this approach you begin with a set of specific hypotheses and then see if these work in real world situations (Thomas, 2004). In this case, the Indonesian hospitality industry was chosen as the setting in which learning and knowledge sharing and its influence on innovative behaviour is investigated. To collect the sufficient data needed to properly empirically test the relationships central in this study, surveys are handed out to the employees of the hotels. However, the disadvantage of using a explanatory case study is that the focus is laid upon a specific unit of analysis and the findings can therefore not be generalized to other settings.

3.2 The Indonesian hospitality industry

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21 people are integrated into strong and cohesive in-groups, which throughout people’s lifetimes continue to protect them in exchange for unquestioning loyalty. Whereas a individualistic culture pertains to a society in which the ties between individuals are loose and where everyone is expected to look after himself or herself and his or her immediate family (Hofstede, 2010). In Indonesia individuals are expected to conform to the ideals of the society and the groups to which they belong (Hofstede, 2010). Wolfe and Loraas (2008) implicate that a collectivistic organizational culture increases the intentions amongst the employees to share knowledge and learn. The focus of this research will be on Bali, an Indonesian island located to the East of Jakarta. The Balinese society also embraces the concept of Rukun and value the collective good more than the individual. Bali has 4.2 million inhabitants and is mostly known as a tourist haven with an estimated 6.6 million tourist expecting to visit in 2015.

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22 the ones that are in direct contact with the customers and are therefore essential as they directly affect the customer's satisfaction (Zeithaml and Bitner, 2000). Due to their knowledge about the needs of the customer, innovation is often initiated by the company's customer-contact personnel (Jones, 1996). Moreover, the attitudes and behaviours of these employees can significantly influence the customer's perceptions of the service which leads to the differentiation of the service in comparison to the organization's competitors (Ottenbacher, 2007). Thus, hospitality companies must find ways to effectively manage the attitudes and behaviours of their employees and encourage them to create new ideas and solutions to problems so that they can more reliably deliver high-quality services (Hartline et al., 2000).

The choice to perform research in the hospitality industry in Indonesia, and specifically on Bali, was based on a combination of several reasons. The first reason is that the hospitality industry is a knowledge intensive industry (Kahle, 2002) and that innovation is often initiated by the company's customer-contact personnel in this industry (Jones, 1996). According to Monica Hu et al. (2008) there has recently been more emphasis on knowledge sharing and learning in the hospitality industry. Since service quality is critical to organizational performance in the hospitality industry, enhancing knowledge about customer preferences and sharing this knowledge is essential. Moreover, Kim et al. (2012) imply that knowledge sharing and learning in the hospitality industry promote organizational innovation and innovative performance. The employees who deliver the service are the ones that are in direct contact with the customers and are therefore essential in the innovation process. Secondly, the studies of Borkent (2013) and Van Bree (2014) were also performed in the hospitality industry and it is therefore possible to compare the results of the similar relationships being studied and to further develop the underlying theory. Finally, a practical reason for choosing Indonesia is the availability of an established network of contacts which makes it easier to approach hotels for the survey. Bali in particular was chosen because of the large amount of hotels that are established on the island which makes it a highly competitive industry. Currently there are more than 3000 hotels located on Bali with a total of more than 60.000 rooms (www.thejakartapost.com). As the industry is highly competitive it is crucial to the organizations to be innovative to be able to outperform their competitors. This industry therefore provides a suitable market in which the case study can be performed.

3.3 Data collection

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23 international hotel chain, three are part of an Indonesian hotel chain, and two hotels are privately owned. A short description of the hotels included in the case study is given in table 1.

Table 1: Profile of hotels

The questionnaire used to collect the needed data was filled in by employees and managers of hotels from several layers within different departments. The questionnaire that was developed for the study had been translated into the Indonesian native language 'Bahasa'. This was necessary as the level of English of the hotel employees is lacking which prohibited them to fill in the English questionnaire correctly. Furthermore, a hardcopy version of the questionnaire was used because less than 30 percent of the hotel employees have access to a computer during working hours. An envelope was attached to each separate questionnaire so that confidentiality was kept. This was necessary to enhance the possibility that the respondents would answer the question as honest as possible which increases the reliability of the results.

In total 220 questionnaires were handed out to employees within seven hotels, of which 131 were collected. Of the collected questionnaires, 2 were unusable as less than 50 percent of the questions were filled in. For the results to be reliable a minimal of 100 respondents must be met (Thomas, 2004). Accordingly, the sample of 129 respondents meets the suggested minimum size. The surveys were analyzed quantitatively using SPSS because ordinal data was collected. The Cronbach's Alpha and the corrected item-total correlations were used to check the concepts to make sure that they are valid and reliable. Moreover, linear regression analyses were conducted to test the formulated hypotheses. The following chapter shall describe the SPSS analyses and the results in more detail.

3.4 Measurement tools

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24 individual behaves in a innovative way. In total 9 statements with a 7-point Likert scale, ranging from (1) 'never' to (7) 'always', were used to measure how often an individual performed certain activities. The second section contained the concept of knowledge sharing, learning and social capital (a form of individual capital) which were measured by the survey created by Borkent (2013). A total of 27 statements with a 7-point Likert scale, ranging from(1) ‘strongly disagree’ to (7) ‘strongly agree’, were used to measure attitudes toward learning and knowledge sharing and social capital. Furthermore, the third section entails the questions related to Humanness and was measured by the adjusted version created by Scholte (2011) of the measurement tool developed by Sigger et al. (2010). The four dimensions of Humanness were measured by 33 statements and a 5-point Likert scale, ranging from (1) ‘strongly disagree’ to (5) ‘strongly agree’, was used. Finally, the fourth section illustrated the other forms of individual capital. The survey created by Borkent (2013) was used to measure this concept and was slightly adjusted to match the purpose of this study. Open and multiple-choice questions were used to measure the demographics and the different forms of individual capital. The complete survey can be found in Appendix D. Table 2 gives an overview of the concepts and the variables that have been used to measure the constructs in this study.

Table 2. Concepts and variables

3.5 Quality criteria

Finally, it is important to describe how the quality criteria are met to be able to manage and evaluate the quality of the research. According to Swanborn (1996) the most important quality criteria are controllability, reliability and validity as they provide the basis for inter-subjective agreement on research results. Inter-subjective is determined as "the consensus between the actors who deal with a research problem" (Van Aken et al., 2012: 12). First of all, controllability is necessary for the evaluation of validity and reliability. Controllability is met by giving a detailed description of this study and by precisely presenting the results so that others are able to replicate this research and check whether the same results are obtained.

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25 research is conducted. This independency makes it possible for the research to be replicated by others (Swanborn, 1996; Yin, 2003). A strategy to increase researcher reliability is standardization (Van Aken et al., 2012). Standardization in this study is met by using quantitative analysis tools which prevent the researcher from manipulating the results and by following the basic structure of theory testing research. Several action have been taken to reduce the dependency on the instruments used in this study. First of all, reliability is increased by using multiple research instruments, also known as triangulation (Yin, 2003). This study uses surveys, documents and observations to collect the needed data. Furthermore, as explained in the preceding paragraph the scales used in the survey have all been published and can therefore be seen as reliable which reduces their dependency. Finally, as is the case in this study, different questions within a survey which measure a particular variable can be considered as different instruments and thus increases the independence of the instruments (Van Aken et al., 2012). To reduce the results dependency on the respondents, three principals have been followed. First, questionnaires have been handed out to employees from several layers within different departments of the hotels. Incorporating different layers and departments of each hotel into the study has a positive effect on the reliability of the respondents (Van Aken et al., 2012). Second, the respondents have been randomly selected, to create a selected sample. Third, the number of respondents is above 100 which is according to Thomas (2004), sufficient to produce reliable results. The last type of unreliability is when the particular situation in which the research is conducted cannot be replicated in other circumstances. This is dealt with by incorporating multiple hotels within the research and therefore the replication of the research is made possible in different circumstances.

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4. Findings of the case study

4.1 Analysis of the sample characteristics

The total number of respondents which comprise the sample is 129. Of the 129 respondents 53,5% were male and 46.5% were female. The age of the respondents ranged between the 18 and 59 years old. 41,9% of the sample was between the 18 and 29 years old, 37,2% between the 30 and 39 years old, 18,6% between the 40 and 49 years old and 2,8% between the 50 and 59 years of age. Furthermore, 70,5% of the respondents were married, 27,9 % were single. Two respondents indicated that they were either divorced or widowed. Nearly half of the respondents (45.7%) said to have a full time contract and 46,5% indicated to be contractually bound to the organization. The other 7.8% were either a part timer, following an internship or indicated to have a different kind of employee status. It is assumed that the respondents who indicated that their employment status is contracted, mean that they were full time employed within their organization as these two options are rather similar. Therefore, in can be determined that 92,2% had a full time contract. The results of the survey also indicated that most of the respondents took 15 to 30 minutes to travel to their work (40,3%). 16,3% spent less than 15 minutes to travel and the remaining 42,6% had to travel more than a half an hour to get to their work. The final general characteristic identified in the survey is the department in which the respondents work. In total a number of 13 departments were named in the results of the survey which can, according to Kasavana and Brooks (2009), be categorized into three groups: Food & Beverage (i.e. restaurant, bar and catering), Rooms Division (front office, housekeeping, guest relations, service express) and others (sales and marketing, accounting, security, maintenance, HR, SPA). Food & Beverage was the smallest group in which 16,3% of the respondent worked. Rooms Division accounted for 35,3% and all other departments amounted to 48,8%. The ratio of the sample of Rooms Division, Food & Beverage and other departments was therefore: 60:21:48. This ratio gives a good representation of the various departments included in the survey as the two categories, Room Division and Others, were composed by multiple departments whilst Food & Beverage consisted of one department. It can therefore be concluded that the sample reflects the total population of the hospitality industry.

4.2 Reliability and validity of the variables

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27 the Cronbach's Alpha must be at least 0,700 for an intrinsically correct and reliable scale for complex constructs. Furthermore, the corrected item-total correlation is used to test the contributions of each item. It is desirable that the corrected item-total correlations are higher than 0,300. Hence, the items that correlate below 0,300 are not sufficiently related and therefore do not contribute to measurement of the core factor (Cooper and Schindler, 2006). Moreover, the higher the items correlate with one another the more the homogeneous the scale which creates a higher similarity among the items. Deleting items that have a low correlation leads to an increase in scale homogeneity and enhances the Crohnbach's Alpha and therefore the reliability and validity (Ferketich, 1991).

Table 3 gives an overview of the computed Cronbach's Alpha's and Appendix E presents the detailed description of the analyses. Furthermore, the descriptive statistics of the variables economic capital, cultural capital and symbolic capital can also be found in appendix E.

Table 3: Overview Cronbach's Alpha's

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28 indicates that the corrected item-total correlations of the nine items meets the requirement and thus resulted into a nine question scale that measured the construct respect & dignity.

Furthermore, a factor analysis was conducted to test the validity of the measurement scales. To determine if the items of the different variables could be compressed into broader factors, a factor analysis was conducted. A Factor analysis is a statistical method used to uncover the underlying structure of a relatively large set of variables. The analysis indicates the amount of factors that should be used when combining several items. The number of factors is determined by the amount of Eigenvalues of the items that are above 1.0. Therefore, it is tested whether the items of the different measurement scales used in this study can be compressed into one factor. The results of the factor analysis indicated that for each measurement scale tested only one Eigenvalue was above 1.0 which indicates that no items had to be deleted and could be compressed into one factor.

Finally, to increase the validity and reliability a test will be performed to check if multicollinearity is an issue. Multicollinearity occurs when two or more predictor variables in a multiple regression model are highly correlated (Hair, J., Black, W., Babin & Anderson, 2010). In order to check for multicollinearity, the maximum variance inflation factor (VIF) was computed. Analysis showed that multicollinearity was not a problem, since the maximum VIF of the multiple regression analyses was 2.460. This value does not exceed the desired value of 3.0 and is below the critical value of 10 (Belsley et al., 2005).

4.3 Testing the hypotheses

Before the hypotheses are tested, it is first interesting to investigate whether the results of Scholte (2012) can be confirmed, in that Humanness is present in Indonesia. A one-sample t-test was used to test the presence of Humanness. The results indicated that Humanness is indeed present in Indonesia which confirms the results of Scholte (2012) and enhances its reliability. Appendix H presents a detailed description of the one-sample t-test and discusses the findings of the of the analysis. Furthermore, the results of the survey indicated that the variable 'ethnicity', which is included to measure cultural capital, could not be further used in the analysis as the findings were not reliable. Appendix E provides a more detailed description.

4.3.1 Pearson correlation test

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29 distributed. However, the Q-Q plot of the variable 'tenure in the industry' indicated that several scores slightly deflected from the other scores. Nonetheless, the differences in this variable were not too large which suggests that the variable can be termed as normally distributed.

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30

**. Correlation is significant at the 0.01 level (2-tailed) Table 4: Pearson correlation matrix

*. Correlation is significant at the 0.05 level (2-tailed)

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31 4.3.2 Regression analysis

After the correlations between the variables have been determined, the variables have to further be examined through a regression analyses to establish causality. First of all, the relationships between Humanness and individual capital and attitudes toward learning and knowledge sharing were tested whereby Humanness and individual capital were modelled as one factor. To be able to measure these first order relationships, a multiple regression analysis is used. More specifically, a stepwise regression analysis is computed which filters out the insignificant independent variables. Therefore, only the statistically significant variables are kept in the analysis to determine which variables influence attitudes toward knowledge sharing and learning. The findings of the first order regression analysis presented in Appendix A reveal that individual capital (β = .490, p < .001) is significantly related to attitudes toward knowledge sharing whereas Humanness is not (β = .416, p > .10). Therefore, hypothesis 1 can be rejected and hypothesis 3 can be accepted suggesting that only individual capital positively influences attitudes toward knowledge sharing. Furthermore, the findings indicate that hypothesis 2 and 4 can also be accepted as Humanness (β = .630, p < .01) and individual capital (β = .198, p < .01) are significantly related to attitudes toward learning. Thus, it can be concluded that the more employees relate to Humanness and the more individual capital they possess the eager they are to learn from their colleagues.

Secondly, the relationships between attitudes toward learning and knowledge sharing and individual innovative behaviour were tested. The results indicated that Hypothesis 5 and 6 are accepted as attitudes toward knowledge sharing (β = .719, p < .001) and attitudes toward learning (β = .538, p < .01) have a significant positive relationship with individual innovative behaviour. The results of these regression analyses can also be found in Appendix A.

Decomposed effects

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32 relationship between individual capital and attitudes toward learning, the components social capital (β = .536, p < .001) and economic capital (β = .053, p < .05) have a positive influence as they significantly relate to attitudes toward learning.

Additional findings

The Pearson correlation test indicated that there was a possibility that Humanness and individual capital directly affected individual innovative behaviour. The performed stepwise multiple regression analysis suggests that Individual capital (β = .483, p < .01) positively relates to individual innovative behaviour and that no significant relationship was found between Humanness and individual innovative relationship (β = .482, p > .10). To understand which components had the strongest effect on individual innovative behaviour a second stepwise multiple regression analysis was performed. The findings indicate that cultural capital (β = .336, p < .001) had the strongest effect on individual innovative behaviour as it significantly related to individual innovative behaviour. The results of these additional findings can be found in Appendix C.

4.4 Conclusion of the survey findings

Now all the analyses have been performed, a conclusion of the findings can be drawn. Table 5 gives an overview of all the accepted and rejected hypotheses. Furthermore, figure 3 reveals the conceptual model which is adjusted to the findings and figure 4 represents the decomposed effects of the separate components of the variables Humanness and individual capital.

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33

***. Significant at the 0.001 level (2-tailed) **. Significant at the 0.01 level (2-tailed) *. Significant at the 0.05 level (2-tailed)

Figure 2: Conceptual model adjusted with Betas

***. Significant at the 0.001 level (2-tailed) **. Significant at the 0.01 level (2-tailed) *. Significant at the 0.05 level (2-tailed)

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5. Discussion

5.1 Humanness and attitudes toward knowledge sharing and learning

The results of the survey presented some unexpected findings. The analyses suggests that no significant relationship exists between Humanness and attitudes toward knowledge sharing. Likewise, Van Bree (2014) also did not find a direct relationship between Humanness and attitudes toward knowledge sharing. This is surprising as previous research (Scholtens, 2011; Scholte, 2012; Fredriks, 2012) concluded that Humanness and its dimensions had a positive influence on knowledge sharing. A possible explanation for this unexpected result can be that the hospitality industry in itself is highly knowledge intensive (Kahle, 2002) and that Indonesia is a collectivistic society. Employees in the hospitality industry are obligated to share as much knowledge as possible to be able to contribute to the overall service quality standard. Therefore, they already perceive knowledge sharing as a critical activity that leads to an improved organization performance. Moreover, Hofstede (2010) stated that Indonesia can be seen as a collectivistic country in which individuals associate themselves to the ideals of the society and the groups to which they belong. Thus, it is likely that the Indonesian people already share a lot of knowledge with their surroundings as they perceive it as highly important (Kim et al., 2012). As knowledge sharing is already a crucial aspect in the Indonesian hospitality industry, perhaps Humanness plays a less obvious roll in these circumstances.

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35 of Rukun which is embraced in the Indonesian culture. It can thus be interpreted that Humanness, specifically the component survival, increases the need to learn amongst the employees in order to contribute to the collective good of the firm.

5.2 Individual capital and attitudes toward knowledge sharing and learning

The results indicated that individual capital has a positive influence on attitudes toward knowledge sharing and learning. Individual capital is of importance as it concerns the resources individuals use in relation to the attitudes toward knowledge sharing and learning. Employees are seen as the ones who hold capital which they use to maintain or enhance their position in the social hierarchy (Cvetičanin, 2012). Strong ties increases bonding and trust between individuals which in turn increases the amount of information and ideas being shared (Liu, 2011). Furthermore, a network with strong ties enhances an individual's intentions to share knowledge and learn from others (Wasko and Faraj, 2005).

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36 1997), social capital is an essential resource to the knowledge sharing and learning activities within a firm.

5.3 Attitudes toward learning and knowledge sharing and individual

innovative behaviour

The findings reveal that attitudes toward knowledge sharing and learning both relate significantly to individual innovative behaviour. These results correlate with the results of Liao (2006) and Fredriks (2012) who concluded that knowledge sharing and learning have a positive effect on the innovative behaviour of an organization and also result into innovative opportunities. Van Offenbeek and Koopman (1996) imply that exchanging information can be seen as interaction processes between employees which promote innovation. The exchange of information increases knowledge and experience resources available to other employees, improves the analysis of the problem and allows better assessment of the usefulness of potential solutions (Jackson, 1996; Nemeth and Owens, 1996). These factors can all be seen as critical to the innovation process and enhance the employee's intentions to innovate. Thus, hospitality companies must find ways to effectively manage the attitudes and behaviours of their employees and encourage them to create new ideas and solutions to problems so that they can deliver high-quality services (Hartline et al., 2000). Due to the employees knowledge about the needs of the customer, innovation is often initiated by the company's customer-contact personnel (Jones, 1996). Organizations therefore need to develop and ensure knowledge sharing behaviour to be able to increase the innovative behaviours of the employees throughout the firm. Furthermore, learning is associated with the development of new knowledge and is also an important aspect of the innovation process which leads to an improvement of firm performance (Liao, 2006). Being eager to learn indicates an appreciation for and desire to develop, assimilate and apply new ideas (Huber, 1991). As Individual innovative behaviour entails creating new ideas, seeking support for ideas and realizing ideas (Scott and Bruce, 1994), attitudes toward learning play an important role in enhancing the innovative behaviours of the employees within the hospitality industry.

5.4 Additional findings

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37 could be that the higher the education level of an individual's parents and the more family and relatives who worked in the hospitality industry prior to their entry into the industry, the more individuals are likely to gain extensive knowledge from them and therefore develop deeper understanding of the business. This may increase their ability to identify innovative opportunities and encourage them to pursue these opportunities. However, to be able to draw precise conclusions future research is needed to test and understand this relationship in more detail.

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6. Conclusion

Figure 4 presents the concluding model which reveals the found relationships between the concepts studied in this study.

Figure 4: Concluding model

6.1 Conclusion of the main findings

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39 sharing and learning are not in all situations seen as intervening variables. Hartmann (2006) stated that organizational culture is essential in motivating innovative behaviour within the firm. Hence, it can create and enhance commitment among members of an organization in terms of believing in innovation as an organizational value and accepting innovation-related norms prevalent within the organization. However, more research is needed to provide a better understanding of this relationship.

Furthermore, the purpose of this study was to further elaborate on the studies of Borkent (2013) en Van Bree (2014) performed respectively in the American and South African hospitality industry and identify to what extent the attitudes toward knowledge sharing and learning are influenced by Humanness and individual capital. The findings indicate that Humanness positively influences attitudes toward learning and that the analysis concerning the decomposed effects reveals that survival has a significant relationship. Survival increases the coherence of the team (Poovan et al., 2006; Lutz, 2009) and is evident in that team members are dependent from each other in order to increase effectiveness. Learning can be seen as a social process in which individuals intend to contribute to the goals of the team (Lin et al., 2009; Mbigi, 1997). It can thus be concluded that Humanness is an important aspect in enhancing the perceptions of employees which encourages the willingness of the employees to learn from one another. The results also show that Humanness does not relate to attitudes toward knowledge sharing. This is an unexpected finding as other prior researches did identify this relationship (Scholtens, 2011; Scholte, 2012; Fredriks, 2012).

Finally, the analysis of the survey suggests that individual capital positively influences attitudes toward knowledge sharing and learning. Accordingly, the analysis of the decomposed effects of the components of individual capital reveals that social capital and economic capital significantly relate to attitudes toward knowledge sharing and learning. According to Davenport and Prusak (1998) attitudes toward knowledge sharing and learning can be encouraged trough an appropriate reward mechanism and that rewards in the form of income (economic capital) is the most effective resource. Social capital is an essential resource in creating strong ties between employees. Strong ties increases the bonding and trust between individuals which in turn increases the amount of information and ideas being shared and the willingness to learn from one another (Liu, 2011).

6.2 Theoretical contributions

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40 colleagues, are more eager to show innovative behaviour. The second contribution of this study is that it is the first performed research to test both the influence of Humanness and individual capital on attitudes toward knowledge sharing and learning. It thereby also contributes to the reliability of the measurement tool developed by Sigger et al. (2012) and the findings of Scholte (2012), as the presence of Humanness is identified in the Indonesian hospitality industry. Third, this research contributes to increasing the understanding of Bourdieu’s theory of practice. The study contributes to the body of knowledge on how the concept of individual capital can be used to explain how the willingness of the employees, working in the hospitality industry, to share knowledge and to learn from one another can be increased. The results also suggest that individual capital directly influences individual innovative behaviour in which cultural capital has a significant relationship. However, more research is needed to draw more precise conclusions.

6.3 Managerial implications

This study has identified several implications that managers in the Indonesian hospitality industry should take into account. First of all, the findings were in accordance with the findings of Kim et al. (2012) who implied that knowledge sharing and learning in the hospitality industry promote organizational innovation and innovative performance. This study elaborated on these findings in that it revealed that attitudes toward knowledge sharing and learning positively influences individual innovative behaviour. Managers must realize that due to their knowledge about the needs of the customer, innovation is often initiated by the company's customer-contact personnel (Jones, 1996). The attitudes and behaviours of these employees can significantly influence the customer's perceptions of the service which can potentially lead to a competitive advantage (Ottenbacher, 2007). Employees within the hospitality industry must know that their own coordination and joint creative thinking are essential to increase the quality of the service and thereby enhancing customer satisfaction (Bouncken, 2002). Thus, hospitality companies should find ways to effectively manage the attitudes and behaviours of their employees and encourage them to create new ideas and solutions to problems, seek support for their ideas and dare to realize these ideas, so that the firm can deliver high-quality services (Hartline et al., 2000).

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41 development through the service encounter (Bouncken, 2002). Furthermore, the results revealed that the components social capital and economic capital enhance attitudes toward knowledge sharing and learning. Social capital is an essential resource in creating strong ties between employees. Strong ties increases the bonding and trust between individuals which in turn increases the amount of information and ideas being shared (Liu, 2011). Thus, managers should put effort into enhancing the social capital possessed by the employees which will encourage their willingness to share knowledge and to learn from one another. Moreover, Economic capital emerges as an important motivating factor for employees with regard to knowledge management initiatives. According to Davenport and Prusak (1998) attitudes toward knowledge sharing and learning can be encouraged through an appropriate reward mechanism in which the reward in the form of a ‘hard’ tangible benefit (income) is the most effective resource. Thus, in can be concluded that managers within the hospitality industry should extrinsically reward the employees that excel in the activities of sharing knowledge and learning. Furthermore, the component survival enhances the perceptions of employees concerning the attitudes toward learning. Survival increases the coherence of the team (Poovan et al., 2006; Lutz, 2009) and is evident in that team members are dependent from each other in order to increase effectiveness. The feeling of belonging to the group increases a persons' intrinsic motivation to contribute to the team goals (Hampden-Turner and Trompenaars, 1993). Thus, survival intrinsically motivates employees to be more eager to learn from their colleagues and thus increases the employee's value for the team. Managers should not only focus on the extrinsic rewards, but also provide employees with intrinsic rewards to enhance their attitudes toward learning.

6.4 Limitations and future research

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How Attitudes Toward Knowledge Sharing and Learning Increases Individual Innovative Behaviour